Along with this request, the MBC also called on the government to find a way to get financing for the purchase of shares of the gas project.“There are far more representative chambers of commerce and industry in the country that want the government to stay out of any business and avoid competing with private enterprises,” Gullas said in a statement on Wednesday.
Gullas also explained that the government’s petroleum service scheme is “to let private corporations assume the risk of spending capital to discover and develop our indigenous gas and oil resources.” “We must also stress that any government acquisition and operation of a new energy asset would be highly regressive, considering that the State has been disposing of them for decades,” Gullas said.Gullas then recalled that in 2007, under pressure to bridge the budget deficit, the government sold its 60 percent stake in PNOC Energy Development Corp. for P58.5 billion to a partnership led by Lopez-owned First Gen. Corp.
He also cited the case of the National Power Corp. , whose generating and transmission assets were sold off and are now owned and operated by private firms.